Talking Point 2

“Aria” by Richard Rodriguez

Premise:
• Bilingualism
• Disadvantaged Children
• Feelings of Being an Outsider
• Changing of culture
• Familial pressures
• Dominant white culture
• Teachers pronouncing students as “deficient learners”
• Breaking of families
• Public vs. Private Individuality
• Hearing sounds in language
• Intimacy ruined by culture of power

Author’s Argument:
Richard Rodriguez argues that educators are oblivious to the fact that by forcing bilingual students to obtain and master the language of ‘the culture of power’ ultimately leads to a diminishing of private individuality (family lives and speech) by trying to assimilate them into the dominant culture.

Evidence:
1. When the nun asked Richard to speak in front of the entire class, and not to just address her, showed that he needed to obtain a better grasp of English, and this put pressure on him to practice English in his Spanish speaking home.
2. His parents then assumed the role of teachers outside of school advocating the use of English to help their children have a chance of being part of the dominant majority; ultimately this caused the family to not speak as much and reduced conversation between family members.
3. As the children became more confident with English they talked to more people outside of their own family driving a wedge between themselves and their parents, and indeed the teachers’ insistence that Rodriguez’s parents teach them English led to an intrusion in his family’s private individuality, but it was given up to achieve public individuality: a fair tradeoff?

Questions/Comments/Point to Share:
I believe this article showed a great perspective of how trying to assimilate into a dominant culture can have both benefits and downfalls. The insistence of Richard’s teachers that he practice English in his home caused this perpetual tension between he and his parents causing them to not converse as lucidly, or as much as before. The article was an easy read for me and showed a great example of how knowing the dominant language is more important than knowing any other language. I feel that it relates to other texts we have read such as Johnson saying how this type of situation needs to be explicitly dealt with in society. This could also relate to Delpit as well because it is sort of silencing the dialogue of a family and Delpit would agree that this type of action is completely wrong.